John M. Caie

Caie published two books of poetry in English and in Scots: The Kindly North of 1934 and 'Twixt Hills and Sea in 1939, the latter with an introduction by Herbert Grierson. His personal and professional background in the rural North-East and in agricultural life gives an authenticity to poems about rural life in the area, as J. Derrick McClure notes in Language, Poetry and Nationhood: ‘farming life is a dominant theme of his poetry: but there is no idealisation of that life in the elegiac and often gloomy and fatalistic meditations which his characters conduct in a rich, authentic and skilfully-turned Doric.’

Just as adept are the short, dry verses of the ‘Cynical Observes’ that take a wry look at human failings – no doubt it was this sense of humour that contributed to his success as an after-dinner speaker:

           Heaven

           A croon, a harp, a bonnie sang,
           Wi’ naething tae dee but tak’ wir ease,
           An’ still-an’-on we’re loath tae gyang –
           Dod, but fowk’s gey ill tae please.

His much-loved poem about the vaunty frog, ‘The Puddock’, is still often set for children’s verse-speaking competitions.

J.M. Caie died in Aberdeen on 22 December 1949.